More than half U.S. adults experience gun-related incident: survey

People gather during a rally decrying rising gun violence while urging politicians to take action in Washington, D.C., the United States, June 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

The survey found that gun-related injuries and deaths, as well as worries about gun violence, disproportionately affect people of color in the United States.

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Xinhua) -- More than half of U.S. adults have experienced a gun-related incident, according to a new survey published on Tuesday.

The latest survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a California-based non-profit organization, showed that 54 percent of U.S. adults have either personally or had a family member who has been impacted by a gun-related incident, such as witnessing a shooting, being threatened by gun, or being injured or killed by a gun.

When asked about their own personal experience, one in five (21 percent) report that they have been threatened with a gun, while nearly as many (17 percent) say they have witnessed someone being shot.

When asked about their family members, about three in ten adults (31 percent) say they have a family member who has been threatened with a gun, while a similar share (28 percent) say a family member has witnessed someone being shot. One in five (20 percent) adults say a family member has been injured by a gun, and 19 percent say a family member has been killed by a gun, including death by suicide, according to the survey.

The survey revealed that three in four adults in households with guns say at least one gun in their home is either unlocked, loaded, or kept with ammunition.

The survey found that gun-related injuries and deaths, as well as worries about gun violence, disproportionately affect people of color in the United States.

Three in ten Black adults (31 percent) have personally witnessed someone being shot, as have one-fifth of Hispanic adults (22 percent). One-third of Black adults (34 percent) have a family member who was killed by a gun, twice the share of white adults who say the same (17 percent).

In addition, one-third of Black adults (32 percent) and Hispanic adults (33 percent) say they worry either "every day" or "almost every day" about themselves or someone they love being a victim of gun violence. Meanwhile, only one in ten white adults say the same.

People gather during a rally decrying rising gun violence while urging politicians to take action in Washington, D.C., the United States, June 11, 2022. (Photo by Xiao Xiao/Xinhua)

The survey also found that one in five Black adults (20 percent) and Hispanic adults (18 percent) feel like gun-related crimes, deaths, and injuries are a "constant threat" to their local community, more than double the share among white adults (8 percent).

The survey was conducted from March 14 to 23 online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of nearly 1,300 U.S. adults in English and in Spanish.

The survey was published one day after the bank shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, which left six people dead, including the shooter.

Gun violence is rampant across the United States, with shootings occurring frequently. More than 11,600 people have lost their lives to gun-related incidents so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks shootings in the country.